Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has a problem: he cannot tolerate dissent or what he sees as disobedience to his wishes. He seems to think that he can order or legislate complete subservience to his beliefs.
DeSantis fired Hillsborough County’s state attorney, Andrew Warren, who was twice elected to his post by the voters of the county. Warren has sued to have his position restored. The trial began this week.
The firing of Warren, like DeSantis’ firing of elected local school board members, suggests a man with an authoritarian temperament who recognizes no limits on his power.
The Miami Herald reported:
Lawyers will square off this week in a Tallahassee courtroom for a politically charged trial that’s expected to center on one question:
What was Gov. Ron DeSantis’ motive for yanking Andrew Warren from office? In a surprise move in August that made national headlines, Warren, Hillsborough County’s twice-elected state attorney, was suspended from his duties and escorted out of his office by a sheriff’s deputy. It happened as DeSantis held a rally-style news conference at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office at which he and others lamented aspects of Warren’s progressive approach to criminal justice.
Warren is asking a federal judge to reinstate him. He says the suspension was political retaliation against his right to free speech. DeSantis says he did it because Warren refused to enforce state laws.
Warren is asking a federal judge to reinstate him. He says the suspension was political retaliation against his right to free speech. DeSantis says he did it because Warren refused to enforce state laws.
WHO WILL TESTIFY?
Warren’s lawyers in recent weeks have deposed nine witnesses. They include several members of the governor’s staff, among them his former press secretary Christina Pushaw, who famously tweeted the night before the suspension to prepare for the “liberal media meltdown of the year…”
The governor’s lawyers deposed five people. They include two Hillsborough prosecutors who may offer insight into Warren’s policy against prosecuting certain minor offenses — one of the reasons the governor cited in accusing Warren of neglecting his duties.
The actual written policy indicates individual prosecutors should use their discretion in deciding whether to pursue such crimes. Warren contends the policies were not a blanket refusal to enforce laws.
The local sheriff complained that Warren refused to prosecute homeless people who slept in business parking lots for trespassing. Warren said that prosecuting them would not solve the problem of homelessness.
Among a deluge of exhibits to hit the court file: a memo that the governor’s staff prepared before Warren’s suspension, noting that Warren was described in a news story as something close to a “social justice warrior.”
It mentioned his refusal to prosecute 67 protesters who were arrested on unlawful assembly charges during protests over the murder of George Floyd.
The memo seemed to express particular concern over Warren’s stance on abortion, and his having signed a pledge with other elected prosecutors to refrain from prosecuting abortion-related cases. (Warren signed a similar pledge against prosecuting transgender healthcare cases.) The memo included a legal analysis of how the governor could justify suspending him.
What seemed to anger DeSantis most was that Warren made clear that he would not prosecute people who defied the state’s abortion ban. To DeSantis, Warren was “woke” and, as the Governor likes to say, Florida is where “woke” goes to die.
How could Governor DeSantis ignore a state prosecutor who defied him? That’s why he fired him.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article269344527.html#storylink=cpy
Diane Ravitch's blog 
DeSantis is an insidious operative. He wants to control all levels of governance in the state, and he has been working to overturn local governance including school boards. He is also feeling even more drunk with power after his big win in the midterms. In his vision for Florida everyone jumps and falls in line according to DeSantis’ preconceived specifications. Warren dared to believe he should be able to interpret and apply laws in the county that elected him. DeSantis can easily ignore democracy if doing so works to his advantage. He is a Machiavellian figure that must kept from holding national office.
I am anticipating and dreading the power-mongering governor of FL’s move to illegally shut down every independent news agency that is trying so hard to hold him accountable in his state. This is all so scary.
Florida is where thought goes to die.
Florida
Where thinking goes to die
Where migrants go to fly
Where cases* multiply
And Ronny goes to lie
*Of COVID
Fly to Martha’s Vineyard, of course
He already has a couple of lawsuits against him for these actions. If he has violated any federal laws, he should be prosecuted like any other citizen. Democrats should stop worrying about optics and focus on winning within the legal limits of the law, unlike the GOP that will try to win by any means necessary.
This guy sounds like Trump to the nth power. He’s MUCH more effective at getting his “ideas” passed via legislation. I hate to call him more intelligent, but he clearly is. And with those two pieces, at national level, yes, he’d be much more dangerous.
Because he believes he knows what best for the people in florida he truly believes we are all children who can’t look after ourselves he has a Nepolean complex little man who wants people to think he’s big doesn’t like when people call him out just look at disney they use their 1st admendment and desantis tries to punish them because they don’t agree with him
That’s a good observation about the Napoleon complex.
It was very revealing when, referring to Fauci, DeSantis said ” someone should throw that little elf across the Potomac”
DeSantis (5’9″) is no giant himself, standing only a couple inches taller than Fauci (5’7″).
DeSantis obviously has a huge chip on his (right) shoulder that makes him appear much taller than he is (at least on to the right)